Cold Steel's warranty (New 2015 Recon1)

Y

Yabani

Joined
Jun 26, 2015
Messages
4
Some weeks ago I've got a new Recon 1 Tanto (plain with CTS-XHP).
I bought it from ebay. From the seller with good rating (whitemountainknives) and bought from this store earlier without any issues.
When I looked at the knife I saw a big vertical blade play. About bad grinding of the blade I even don't want to say - it's a normal from CS's factory as I see....
Before I paid for the knife I ask the seller to check the knife before sending but.... all we people and he forgot about it...
But when I wrote to him he apologized and made refund me 20$ from the knife's price. This behavior should be respected.
Later I wrote a letter to Cold Steel's customer service about my problem and after 3 letters and 2 weeks I received this:

"
Hi
My apologies for the delay.

Cold Steel cannot guarantee the condition or legitimacy of any products sold on Amazon or Ebay. We do not sell through those sites, and many knock-offs are moved there, as well as products being sold as 'new' that are worn, damaged, or used.

I was unable to convince management to overturn the standing parts rule that deals with the internal mechanisms for the parts that were requested in your previous email. This has been a standing protocol for decades now.

As this was an Ebay Purchase the Refund would be handled with Ebay, Cold Steel did neither bill your account or collect funds from you. You may want to consider starting a claim with either Ebay or Paypal.
"

So, just a question - does it's mean a "customer service"?
And nothing about Demko's tests - my knife has a blade play without tests. New. Just from the box.

Thanks.
 
I'm very surprised that CS's position is the same for EBay AND Amazon. EBay I can understand.
 
If I had bought a knife in that condition I would be suspicious and I would send it back for a full refund immediately. Then, I would go to a legitimate CS dealer (like KW) and buy a knife I know will be right or made right.

I have never seen a CS knife in that condition that was new. Their quality is usually very good. Just sayin'.
 
DocT said:
If I had bought a knife in that condition I would be suspicious and I would send it back for a full refund immediately. Then, I would go to a legitimate CS dealer (like KW) and buy a knife I know will be right or made right.

I have never seen a CS knife in that condition that was new. Their quality is usually very good. Just sayin'.
Click to expand...

They wrote that I MUST send only with FEDEX or DHL. I understand why, but if sending costs about 1/2 of the knife's price - it's not good for me.
 
KenHash said:
I'm very surprised that CS's position is the same for EBay AND Amazon. EBay I can understand.
Click to expand...

I'm not surprised at all. Many knock-offs are moved through Amazon as well, by secondary dealers. It definitely would not be the first time this has happened. I have to agree with Doc T.
 
To clarify - the first letter was with "Let you will send the knife to us but only with...". But when I wrote a reply where I spoke about shipping price I haven't any reply from them in 2 weeks. I wrote again and received a letter with "...Cold Steel cannot guarantee the condition or legitimacy of any products sold on Amazon or Ebay....".
I think that in the 2 weeks situation with ebay and amazon sellers changed very much!))))
 
I haven't dealt with whitemountainknives on ebay, but I looked them up and they have a 99.9% positive score with 56,000+ sales, so it looks like they must be selling legit products, and must also be good to deal with when an issue arises. You may have received a knife that somehow slipped through quality control from Cold Steel. While there have been several complaints of off-center grinds on recent knives, there should not be significant blade play. I'm not sure why you went with a partial refund from the seller rather than just returning the knife for full refund/exchange, but the email from CS mentions that you asked for some internal parts, so maybe you thought you could fix the blade play yourself by replacing some parts? As you've discovered, CS isn't going to send out lock components. I don't know of a company that does. Most companies will send you pocket clips, screws, torsion bars (in the case of Kai), etc., but that's about it. You'll either have to contact whitemountainknives again and see if they'll agree to a full refund or exchange or pay the shipping to send the knife in to Cold Steel. Since shipping back to CS sounds like it will be prohibitively expensive for you, contacting whitemountainknives would be the best way to go. They are no longer obligated to fully refund or exchange the knife, imho, since you already agreed to the partial refund, but they may be willing to work with you. It's worth a shot, at least. :thumbup:

edit: It just occurred to me that you may not have wanted to send the knife back to whitemountainknives for the same reason you didn't want to send it in to Cold Steel: high shipping rates. If shipping is that much, it sounds like you are outside the USA. If that's the case, I don't know what to tell you. It sounds like you're going to have to eat significant shipping charges either way. That sucks, but it sounds like you'll have to do it if you want a properly functioning knife.
 
Since 1968, federal law has provided that limitations on a warranty only disclosed after the sale are null and void. So if a product is warranted against defects in manufacture, an attempted limitation that no warranty is made for sales through eBay or Amazon is of no legal effect. To have effect, that limitation would have had to have been clearly disclosed prior to sale. Thus, the warranty by operation of federal law is the same as if it were purchased from any other vendor. Magnuson–Moss Warranty Act 15 U.S.C. sec. 2301, et seq.
 
I don't think they're trying to get out of covering the knife, they're just saying that they can't guarantee the condition or legitimacy of knives sold through these vendors. I imagine they want him to send it to them not only so they can examine it to see if it can be fixed, but also to verify that it's a genuine item. In other words, you can still send in a knife of theirs that you bought on ebay or amazon for warranty work, but if they determine it's a fake or has been modded, used but sold as new, etc., it won't be covered. That's how I'm reading it, at least.
 
Yes, I live outside the US.
The seller offered me to send him a knife.
I have not had any problems before, but the fact that the knife is bad done - not the fault of the seller but of the CS's quality control.
Previously I had experience with customer support from Benchmade, EKA and ZT/Kershaw and, although this is Cold Steel's forum, I'll write that for me guarantees of this companies - it's not just the sound of the wind in the forest.
And again - first time they ask me to send the knife, second - they wrote that warranty does not covered knives that was bought from ebay or amazon. What does it mean? I don't understand!
I asked them to send me at least a thicker stop-pin if sending the blade is very costly for them.
I suggested several solutions to problem that would not require to send the knife to them and then back.
They even don't ask me photos or video with the knife from me.
It's strange.
As a result - I decided to keep this knife as a reminder about my last knife that I bought from Cold Steel. Not because they bad (I have some and they do they work well) but because CS not wants to think about it's customers as needed.
 
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